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Leviticus 23
26 The Lord God said to Moses:
27 The tenth day of the seventh month[k] is the Great Day of Forgiveness.[l] It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burned. 28 No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. 29 I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. 30-31 None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! 32 This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.
Psalm 52
52 You people may be strong
and brag about your sins,
but God can be trusted
day after day.
2 You plan brutal crimes,
and your lying words cut
like a sharp razor.
3 You would rather do evil
than good,
and tell lies
than speak the truth.
4 You love to say cruel things,
and your words are a trap.
5 God will destroy you forever!
He will grab you and drag you
from your homes.
You will be uprooted
and left to die.
6 When good people see
this fearsome sight,
they will laugh and say,
7 “Just look at them now!
Instead of trusting God,
they trusted their wealth
and their cruelty.”
8 But I am like an olive tree
growing in God’s house,
and I can count on his love
forever and ever.
9 I will always thank God
for what he has done;
I will praise his good name
when his people meet.
World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon
Chapter 4
God’s Creation and Human Creativity
Creativity and Art
4. Art and Morality
As for the poets, those who follow them stray
into evil. Have you not seen how they stray in
every valley, and how they say what they do
not? Except for those who believe and do good
works, and remember God much.
Qur’an 26.224-227
Singing produces hypocrisy in the heart as water
produces crops.
Hadith of Baihaqi (Islam)
‘A’isha told that when the subject of poetry was
mentioned to God’s messenger, he said, “It is
speech, and what is good in it is good and what
is bad is bad.”
Hadith of Daraquni (Islam)
Emotions of any kind are produced by melody
and rhythm; therefore by music a man becomes
accustomed to feeling the right emotions; music
has thus power to form character, and the various
kinds of music based on various modes, may be
distinguished by their effects on character—one,
for example, working in the direction of melan-
choly, another of effeminacy; one encouraging
abandonment, another self-control, another
enthusiasm, and so on.
Aristotle (Hellenism)
If one should desire to know whether a king-
dom is well governed, if its morals are good or
bad, the quality of its music will furnish the
answer.
The noble-minded man’s music is mild
and delicate, keeps a uniform mood, enlivens
and moves. Such a man does not harbor pain
or mourn in his heart; violent and daring
movements are foreign to him.
Yo Ki, Memorial of Music (Confucianism)
The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if
necessary, to exacerbate, the moral conscious-
ness of people.
Norman Mailer
Under the effect of music, the five social duties
are without admixture, the eyes and the ears
are clear, the blood and the vital energies are
balanced, habits are reformed, customs are
improved, the empire is at complete peace.
Spring and Autumn Annals (Confucianism)
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Humankind struggles in frustration, longing in the world of the heart, because they have defiled the heart’s law. People strive to fill that longing through hobbies, art, knowledge, and love objects, but they are never fully satisfied. This is the sorrow and tragedy of the human condition since the Human Fall. (6:348, May 24, 1959)
After World War II, the trend developed, especially among American women, to worship Lucifer-like men. Who are they? Movie stars, singers and actors… These people are actually last in line to enter heaven, yet women came to worship them.
I have a vision for the arts far beyond secular art. The secular world’s art is rotten; especially the recording artists and Hollywood set who are immersed in free sex. Many have contracted HIV/AIDS. I am promoting absolute sex, and members of my ballet company should not be involved in immoral love affairs. It is a wedge to protect American people from rotting away because of these artists. (339:152-53, December 10, 2000)
In America, you can watch movies on television 24 hours a day. You can watch any kind of movie: war movies, movies about love, even pornographic movies. Young people are readily attracted to them and influenced. Since they do not have a clear viewpoint of life or thought, they copy what they see in these movies.
Youth today live in a permissive environment and have abandoned traditional values that might restrain them from seeking out the stimulating things that they see in the movies. Since their parents do not pay them much attention, family ties are not strong enough to sway them. Teachers and public officials avoid giving them proper education on these matters. Therefore, there is nothing to stop young people from trying free sex, drugs, violence—copying everything they see in the movies. If this continues, the family will disappear and the world will soon be doomed… Therefore, we should quickly establish the standard of a new tradition for the building of a new culture. It is a most urgent matter for unifying the world. (241:197-98, December 26, 1992)
God’s heart of true love—to give and give more, and forget and forget again, to give unconditionally and live for the sake of others—is the foundation of the world of heart. God’s ideal out of which He created the world began from His heart. The arts, which spring from this Origin, should resemble this heart. Hence, in the world of art, there can be no barriers. Art cannot be used as propaganda or the instrument of a particular ideology. Harmony and unity are its basic principles. Divisions and conflicts are the fruits of fallen nature. Accordingly, in the world of art, East and West should under-stand and accept each other, through art whose character is universal and inclusive. (316:70-71, February 9, 2000)
Richard: The teaching of absolute sexual ethics is crucial for the success of youth and young adults: See our teaching materials here.